12th Annual

New York City Dyke March

Want to learn more about the Dyke March? Come to a meeting! Every other Monday from 6:30-8 pm at the LGBT Center at 208 West 13th St.

April 12, 26

May 10, 24

June 7, 14, 21

Be a Marshal Marshals are the dykes that help organize the action and keep other dykes safe. To learn more, come to an exciting marshal training session in June. (Check out the ACT UP marshal training for details about what marshals do at a march.) Already been trained or been a marshal before? Once you've been through our training, it's good for life. Let us know if you want to marshal again next year - we need you!

Accessiblity We need volunteers to help dykes in wheelchairs. If you have any accessibility needs, please contact usbefore the march. We'll do our best to help every dyke participate in the march.

Sights and Sounds Make signs, banners, noisemakers, giant puppets and more for the march. Come early to Bryant Park to make signs for the march!

Outreach and Media Get the word out about the dyke march to the community and the media with flyers and palm cards. Or be a video witness or legal observer at the march. Contact us for more info.

Pictures from last year's marchDykes: it's time to hit the streets. Make some noise. Be visible. Be heard. Dissent! Disrupt! Resist! Demonstrate, agitate, liberate at the New York City Dyke March. Bring signs, banners, drums, giant puppets, flags, hula hoops, or just be there! And if you really want to make things happen - be a marshal. The New York City Dyke March is a protest march, not a parade -- we don't ask for a permit, because we have the right to protest. As lesbians, we recognize that we must organize amongst ourselves to fight for our rights, our safety, and for visibility. Thousands of dykes take over the streets every year in celebration of lesbians and to demonstrate that lesbians refuse to accept ongoing discrimination on the job, in schools, and in families, and harassment and anti-lesbian violence. We're marching because

Sakia Gunn, age 15, was murdered because she was a lesbian on May 11, 2003 in Newark, NJ (Gay City News article)

Lesbians are discriminated against in adopting children and keeping custody of their own children, even in cases of domestic violence (National Center for Lesbian Rights)

Republican Senator Rick Santorum can make bigoted statements comparing homosexuality to pedophilia and bestiality, and get away with it (Gay City News)

Lesbians are discriminated against in housing - a lesbian couple in Florida are filing a lawsuit because they were denied an apartment in a retirement community because they are not related or married (NCLR press release)

A high school student who refused to wear her school's required feminine attire for her yearbook picture asked to wear the male outfit of a shirt and tie, and was denied and excluded from the yearbook (NCLR case pending)

George W. Bush's welfare reform programs that promote marriage discriminate against lesbians by reducing benefits for women who aren't married to men (NGLTF press release)

There are no federal anti-discrimination laws that cover LGBT people, and until the June 26, 2003 Suprepme Court decision, many states still had sodomy laws on the books; the landmark ruling on Lawrence and Garner v. Texas is an important victory, but we are still far from full equality (Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund)

And countless other reasons...As always, the Dyke March is open to all women, biological or otherwise - no sign-up or registration required. Just come out with your banners, signs, noisemakers, and beautiful dyke selves, and join in the march! Allies are encouraged to support the Dyke March by cheering us on from the sidelines. Want to know more? Read up on some Dyke March herstory.

P.S. A fellow dyke, Raven, who is one of the brains behind this march, spent a lot of time spreading awareness, including the proper way of vacuuming (Don't ask -- Raven's a neat freak but is loved by many just the same.)

After the march, come to the one and only

Dyke Ball 2004

Saturday, June 26 Theater for the New City 155 1st Avenue, between East 9th and East 10th Streets $5-$10, more if/less if A benefit for the Dyke March Committee, Dyke TV, and WOW Café Theater.

Get on our e-mail list! We'll send you everything you need to know about this year's Dyke March and Dyke Ball, and how to get involved.